From business-school lecturer to fair maker
Klöver is a native of Bonn, studied economics there and already worked during his studies as a freelance lecturer at a private business school in the Bergisches Land. After his diploma he was taken on permanently and advised companies in the early 90s on the switch to the then-new office IT, a time in which Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access moved into administrations in droves. From this a focus on sales and staff developed: his team carried out so-called test purchases, today better known as mystery shopping, in large car and furniture stores, and derived concrete sales training from it.
At the end of the 90s a new challenge beckoned. An international trade-fair organiser with a focus on Eastern Europe and Russia approached him. In October 1998 he switched and immediately made his first two fair trips to Kyiv and Moscow, in Moscow he was picked up from the airport with personal security. Nevertheless it was quickly clear to him that this is his world.
Self-employment in 2002: the first Hanse Golf
In 2002 he took the step into self-employment, with three employees. A year later his very first own event arose, and that was, of all things, the Hanse Golf. In the same year his company opened an office in Dubai that exists to this day, a year later a sister company in Berlin followed, later further holdings and a travel agency were added. Today the group organises around 70 fairs a year, nine of them its own, with about 45 employees, 30 in Germany and 15 abroad. In total the company has already been active in around 100 countries, from Mongolia through Kenya and Ethiopia to Uzbekistan and the Ivory Coast.
A career in the events industry
Anyone who wants to get into the industry finds a realistic route here. The training profession of event management assistant has existed since the mid-2000s, the company trains one to two young people per year. The project managers who today are responsible for the in-house events have essentially grown from within, because at fairs like the Hanse Golf the network and the grown knowledge of the industry and customers count. Trainees may travel along early, at the latest after being taken on you are sent as a project assistant or independent project manager to larger fairs abroad. Anyone who wants to work in the events industry probably sees more of the world here than in many office jobs.
Hanse Golf: Germany's largest indoor industry meeting point
The idea for the Hanse Golf arose rather by chance, during a visit to a golf fair in Cologne. Klöver saw the shining eyes of the visitors and thought that something like this had to work in Hamburg too, the cradle of German golf. As early as the mid-90s there had already been a Hanse Golf once, organised by Hamburg Messe und Kongress, discontinued after a few years. In 2003 Klöver's young company took up the thread again, in the middle of a golden phase of the German golf economy.
Today the Hanse Golf counts 18,000 visitors over three days, around 250 exhibitors, exhibitor satisfaction and visitor return each clearly over 90 percent. It is the most important indoor date in the German golf market, and it now also attracts many guests from Denmark, Berlin and the Ruhr area. The team built up the Danish audience deliberately, through cooperation with clubs across the border, admission vouchers and articles in club magazines. Add Hamburg weekends with the Reeperbahn and the Elbphilharmonie, a complete package around the fair visit.
How a trade fair comes about at all
Anyone who doesn't watch fair organisers at work underestimates the effort. At the start stands an idea, then the conversation with a small group of possible exhibitors. If the response is right, you look for a location, mostly an exhibition ground in a big city, usually municipally run, rent a hall, create a hall plan and let the stand spaces. In golf the team draws on around a thousand close industry contacts. After that follow stand construction, event areas, the supporting programme and ticketing. The entire process stretches over twelve months, the visitor advertising runs at full speed three to four months beforehand, long since no longer only analogue via ads, radio and posters, but above all via social media, website and email.
Why a fair appearance pays off for golf facilities
- A large, golf-affine audience in one place, in Hamburg 18,000 visitors over three days
- A direct comparison with the competition and frank product feedback first-hand
- The fair is a business platform: associations, club colleagues and golf media are on site anyway
- Emotion sells, the personal experience can hardly be recreated digitally
- Networking as the actual product, personal contacts beat bare number comparisons
Why the fair outlives the internet
The most common counterargument is well known to Klöver: you find everything online. His answer is the experience. Fairs have become more event-oriented, with golf simulators, putting greens and demonstrations in the arena, in which you deliberately invest as an organiser, because they are rarely directly profitable but make the visit a real event. At the season start in February, golfers plan the coming round there, meet friends and try out equipment, with all senses instead of via the search engine. He draws the comparison deliberately broad: Karl May audiobooks, films and streaming have not replaced the festival in Bad Segeberg, and despite Sky broadcasts the Bundesliga stadium fills up. Live events live from a quality no screen delivers. Economically the fair industry is also no sideshow: in Germany alone it stands for around 14 billion euros in direct turnover, plus hotels, food and beverage, retail and transport.
Live events and live happenings cannot be replaced by digital emotions.
Corona stress test
The pandemic hit the industry like hardly any other, the fair business was effectively switched off from mid-March. Klöver argues emphatically that fairs are not large events in the classic sense, but controlled everyday situations. Visitor flows can be steered, the registration enables clean traceability, hygiene and distance rules are implementable. Especially regional events such as the golf fairs, whose visitors come by car, have no logistical problems. In September a first big fair already took place with the Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf, with around 107,000 visitors, a signal that the business is gradually coming back. Internationally the Chinese were pioneers, the Messe München organised events in Shanghai in June and July with 60,000 and later 80,000 visitors. Russia followed in September, Dubai from October.
Digitalisation as an ongoing challenge
Alongside Corona, the topic of digitalisation has occupied Klöver for years. The growth of the fair economy does show that no existential threat looms from this side, at the same time the industry has to try out new formats. There is much talk of hybrid events, that is events that take place in parallel in the hall and online. Much will have to show itself, but it is clear to him: the tools around a fair, from ticketing through visitor advertising to exhibitor communication, are today completely digital, and that will stay.
What is changing in the golf industry
At the clubs Klöver observes above all more flexible offers. Instead of only the classic full membership there are remote memberships, pure playing rights, nine-hole models and golf cards for play on changing courses, similar to what fitness clubs demonstrate. The background: golf's biggest problem is not the money, but the time. Exactly for that reason he considers digitalisation a huge opportunity. Booking systems, handicap calculation and GPS rangefinders are long since everyday, and formats like the Golf Lounge in Hamburg bring the game into gaming: digitally measured shots, nearest-to-the-pin, golf like at the bowling alley, without a five-hour round. The combination of digital convenience and real movement in nature is attractive especially for younger players and thus an important future lever for the industry.
By the way, the pandemic has not harmed golf in his perception, on the contrary. Many people suddenly had more time, sought nature, and golf offered both. If the members from this phase are kept long term, real growth for the facilities could come from it.
His appeal: get out, move, try things
The close is formed by a personal appeal. Klöver, himself shaped by many sports since childhood, calls for going outside, movement, sport, gladly golf, and a conscious handling of the smartphone. Anyone who sits at a fair between demonstrations and catering areas, planning with friends and getting to know new people, quickly notices what is so valuable about live experiences. His wish to the readership: be in solidarity with the fair industry, trust the organisers on hygiene protection and give live events a firm place in the coming years.
Conclusion
Klöver's message is clear. A fair is not a sales shelf but a place for contacts, emotions and comparison, and that is exactly what makes it valuable in a digital world too. For golf facilities the Hanse Golf is thus less a cost item than a stage to become visible, gather feedback and prepare their own season. Anyone who wants to get into the events industry also finds a career path that leads from training to international project management and combines home games and assignments abroad.
